Kansas sex offender committed third child sex crime while on parole, prosecutors allege

A registered sex offender who was being held in a Kansas prison has been arrested on suspicion of committing a third child sex crime while on parole.

The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office arrested Thomas James Goforth on Monday on a charge of sexual exploitation of a child, booking records show. The 39-year-old man is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail.

Goforth is a registered sex offender with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation after a pair of 2014 convictions in Johnson County of sexual exploitation of a child. Goforth, who also goes by the alias Dark Tom, was listed as living at the El Dorado Correctional Facility since October 2018.

Kansas Department of Corrections records show Goforth was in prison from May 2014 until February 2018, when he was paroled to Sedgwick County. He was taken back to prison in October 2018 after a parole violation. He was released to Sedgwick County officials on Monday for a court appearance.

Sedgwick County District Court records show a complaint was filed against Goforth in December 2018, but he didn’t have his first appearance until Tuesday. The alleged crime happened on Sept. 13, 2018 — which would have been while Goforth was on parole.

A sheriff’s office spokesman did not respond to a request for additional information Tuesday afternoon.

This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 3:45 PM.